All Work and No Play...
by magicallittleme
Summary: *jumps with joy* Yay!!!! Ff.net is finally up again!!!! And Author and Review Alerts are working too!!! I'm happy now. Kay, now bout the fic. Hermione's being bitter, spiteful, murderous...you get the point. Written cuz I was pissed this morning. =)


My mother was tough on my work habits from the start. She trained me personally at home. In grade one, I could recite my multiplication tables up to twelve by heart and read chapter books kids wouldn't normally read until grade five. In grade two, I started doing algebra-not the easy kind, the really hard kind-and read scientific books on particle theorys and such. I skipped grade three. In grade four I learned trigonometry and wrote long long book reports on all the books I read. In grade five I could do challenge problems meant for university, and had finished reading all the books in both our school library and the public one in our part of the city. My mother dug out our encyclopedias.   
  
I dreaded the times I came home from school. Everyone else hated school. I hated it when I left school. Every day when I got home, my mother was waiting, with loads and loads of work I had to do. Summer vacations were worse.   
  
I was scared of my mother, scared of coming home from school, starting at the age of seven. How horrible is that? I couldn't refuse her. She was my mother.  
  
At first, I thought every parent did that to their kids. You know, gave them tons and tons of work when they came home. I soon learned I was wrong.   
  
I don't know what she expected me to be. There was no way a future dentist could need all that learning. Or any other job I could imagine.   
  
I was overjoyed when I got the letter from Hogwarts the summer before grade six. Finally, a way out of all this work. I ran upstairs to show my mother and dad. They didn't believe me.  
  
I dragged them to the Underground, determined to prove that it was true. And it was. They were amazed, but they finally believed me.   
  
We exchanged some money for Galleons, Sickles and Knuts, and bought my school supplies. My mother got lots and lots of books. Dad bought me a giant ice cream cone as a celebration. He knew it was the most I would get.   
  
When I got home, my mother made me memorize all my starting texts. I hated her. I wanted to slap her. But I didn't. I did as she said, just like a good little girl.  
  
They took me to King's Cross on September first. I figured out how to get to Platform 9 and 3/4. I led them through. Dad loaded my trunk onto the train.   
  
"I love you Dad" I said, giving him a hug and a kiss.  
  
My mother looked at me expectantly.   
  
I walked over to her. "Mother" I said coldly, and gave her a peck on the cheek.  
  
The whistle blew, once, twice.  
  
"I gotta go" I called to them both. "Bye"   
  
I ran in, and sat down by my trunk. Finally. No more work. I had ten months of leisure ahead of me. Of course, I would need to study for tests and things. But that would be easy. I was finally free of my mother's work.   
  
I was truly happy for the first time in my life. The Sorting Hat put me in Gryffindor, what I had thought to be the best house. And I was right. The girls in my dorm were a bit ditzy, but I would live.  
  
The school year went by in a flash. I made two best friends, Harry and Ron. I got wonderful marks on all my exams. And then, before I knew it, I was sitting on the train, heading for home.  
  
My mother was waiting for me in the station.   
  
"Hurry up, Hermione" she said to me. "We have a lot of work to catch up on"   
  
I felt a fit of rage. When would she ever leave me alone?  
  
She brought up two piles of work to my room. I gaped at her. "All this?"   
  
She nodded. "You've missed alot over the last ten months"  
  
I sighed and started writing. She left after a while. I locked the door.   
  
I had been expecting this, though I had wished she wouldn't. So I took the caution to learn some spells. I whipped out my wand and muttered a few words. Soon, all the answers were on the page.   
  
I did the same thing with all the other papers in the pile. I didn't bother to mess up on some, when I looked at the questions, they were all things my mother expected me to know.  
  
All the answers were on the various papers by then. I had the whole day to myself.   
  
She knocked on my door to call me for lunch.   
  
"Come in" I called, slipping my wand under the bed, and pretending to work.   
  
"It's time for lunch" she said.   
  
"Alright" I told her.  
  
The rest of the summer went something like that. She left me piles of work everyday and I did it in minutes with my wand.   
  
Two weeks before school started again, a letter came from Ron, asking whether or not I could stay at his house.  
  
My mother asked me endless questions about him, his family, and whatever else she could think of. With every question, I felt more angry at her. Who was she to question who I befriended?   
  
For the first time in my life, I let my impatience show. I yelled at her. She yelled back. I tryed to explain things. She didn't listen. I threw a fit of rage. She let me go in the end.  
  
I went down to Diagon Alley and met Ron and Harry there. We got all our school stuff. Just as I was about to leave with them, she grabbed my arm.  
  
"Could you wait a second?" she asked Mrs Weasley sweetly. "I have something I want to show Hermione. I hope I'm not troubling you."  
  
Mrs Weasley smiled. "Not at all"   
  
My mother led me down to Eeylops Owl Emporium. "Let's get an owl" she said. "That way, I can send all your homework to you"  
  
I supressed a groan. Was homework all she ever thought about?   
  
"Sure" I said, trying to sound cheerful.   
  
We walked into the dark rustling store. "How about this one?" I said, picking out tawny owl.  
  
"Fine" she said. "Though she doesn't seem like much of a good flyer."   
  
We bought her and left the store. "Her name's Athena" said my mother.  
  
"She's my owl, shouldn't I get to name her?" I asked.  
  
"No" said my mother. "Her name's Athena"  
  
"But I wanted to name her Rowena" I argued "After one of the Hogwarts four"  
  
"No" said my mother. "And that's final"  
  
We went back to where Mrs Weasley was waiting. "I'll keep her for now" said my mother. "So I can send you things"  
  
"Alright" I said meekly. I didn't want to throw a fit in front of Mrs Weasley.   
  
I had fun the rest of the summer. And at Hogwarts. The stuff my mother sent me was easy enough, since I cheated on all of it. But with every letter she sent, I hated her more and more.   
  
When I got home the next summer, she was waiting for me with more things than before. I blew up at her.   
  
"Why the hell do I have to do all this?" I screamed at her. "No one else does! And I'm the only witch in school that has to do all this extra work! I hate you!"  
  
I fled up to my room. She followed me up a few minutes later. And started lecturing me on "all she had done for me". Yeah right.   
  
I stared at her blankly, nodding every few words so she thought I was listening. It worked like a charm. Though I thought I would explode with rage any minute.  
  
She left after a while. I took a piece of parchment and sent a letter to Ron.   
  
Ron,  
Help me. I need to leave right now. Do you have a place for me to stay without your mum knowing? Thanks.   
Hermione  
  
Tying it onto Rowena's leg (I called her Rowena whether my mother liked it or not), I sent her off.   
  
He sent back a reply the next day.   
  
Hermione,  
Sure. You can stay in our old garden shed. I'll smuggle you out some food. Come whenever.   
Ron  
  
I smiled. I could leave. I packed up my trunk and shrunk it with a spell. Slipping it in my pocket, I grabbed my money bag. And left.  
  
"Sorry Rowena" I whispered. "When I'm older, and have more money, I'll run away for real. And then, I'll take you with me"   
  
She hooted, telling me she understood.   
  
I climbed out my window and into the night. I took the Knight Bus to Ron's house. He kept me hidden until the last two weeks when he sent my "mom" a letter, asking me if I could stay. My "mom" agreed.   
  
The rest of the year went like normal. My mother still sent me things, but she didn't ask where I had gone the rest of the summer. She must have guessed.   
  
When I turned fourteen, I got a summer job, so I could make some money. I worked at a small cafe in downtown London as a cashier. The place got lots of customers, so the pay was pretty good.   
  
Every night, when I got home, I got more homework. And I got very pissed off at my mother.   
  
I worked there for the next summer. It earned me enough money for me to run away.   
  
So the summer after my sixth year, I did. I had already rented a small apartment in downtown London for the two months I would stay. I made a deal with the owner of the building that she would keep the apartment for me the rest of the year, and I could stay for the two months of the summer until I graduated from Hogwarts. She was a witch too. After that, I would stay there all year round.  
  
I packed up my trunk and took Rowena and her cage. "You're coming with me" I whispered. She hooted in delight.  
  
Packing my trunk, just as I had before, I shrunk it, and grabbed Rowena's cage in my hand and all my life savings in the other. I took the Knight Bus to my place, and informed Ron and Harry where I was living now.   
  
It was a two bedroom apartment, a bit spacious for me. But Harry had hinted that he wanted to run away too, and would help me pay the rent if he could stay. I agreed.   
  
Those two months I stayed there, were wonderful. Harry ran away and joined me, the last week of July. We invited some friends over and held a birthday party from him.  
  
With Rowena gone, I thought my mother wouldn't be able to send me any work. I guess I was wrong. She must've bought another owl, for every day, she still gave me piles of homework.   
  
I was enraged at her. Here I was, trying to live my own life, and she kept intruding. I wanted to kill her.   
  
And I never forgot that I did. She didn't love me. Everything I did, she managed to find somethign wrong with. Like in my first year, when I managed to levitate a feather, I was so proud of myself. I sent her a letter telling of my accomplishment. She wrote back saying "Go levitate a table or something big like that." I never wrote her again.  
  
In my seventh year I took advanced DADA classes and learned the Unforgivables. It was one of the requirements of that class, so I didn't get thrown away for practising it on spiders and things.   
  
I graduated Hogwarts with the highest honors a student could have. All my classes were advanced and I was valedictorian of our year. I was also Head Girl. I got an average of 120% on my exams. All the teachers were sorry to see me go, even Snape.   
  
I found a job at the Ministry as secretary to the Minister. Everyone knew that if he happened to die, I would be in the running for the next Minister. The first female Minister of Magic.   
  
My mother kept pushing herself in my mind. I didn't tell her about my job. I knew she would find something wrong with it. She'd made me so bitter at her.   
  
I showed up on her doorstep the day after I turned eighteen. She didn't look surprised.   
  
"Your father died of a heart attack" she said.  
  
It made my blood boil, the way she spoke of it so casually. I pointed my wand at her.  
  
"You made me bitter" I said coldly to her. "You made me spiteful, you made me want to burst into tears and fits of rage and everything in between. And now..."  
  
She didn't move. "Avada Kedavra" I whispered, and in a flash of green light, she was gone.  
  
She had hurt me so much. And now, she was dead.   
  
  
Disclaimer: The peoples belong to JK Rowling.  
  
  
AN: This was written, cuz I was very pissed off this morning. There wasn't enough time to do the stuff I wanted to. And when I'm pissed, I tend kill people off. Or throw things around. Tell me whatcha think, please? Review? =)  
  



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